Beckley No. 1 / Beckley nr. Kidlington

There is entry for this Beckley in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP5611/beckley/] [accessed 10 November 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. A font in this church is described and illustrated in the Guide to the Architectural Antiquities of the Neighbourhood of Oxford (1846): "The Font is plain, round, and massive; it is placed against the north-east pillar of the nave, attached to which is a small stone desk, supported by a shaft of Perpendicular work; this appears to have been made for the purpose of carrying the book for the priest at a christening". Noted in Parker (1850). Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as an unmounted cylindrical font; Bond lists it with the pre-Conquest fonts but he reserves judgment on the dating of it because, though they cannot be proved to be Norman, nor can they proved to be Anglo-Saxon. He mentions the odd stone desk near the font -as in the case of the fonts at Wraxall and Yatton- which may have had some functional relation to that of the font itself. The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850) notes the font and makes reference to the illustration in the 1846 Guide [cf. supra]. Murray (1882) writes: "The font has an ancient stone desk to hold the book for the officiating priest". Noted in Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911 [www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp] [accessed 30 June 2007]: "the font is plain cylinder of stone, placed against the north-east pillar of the nave, attached to which is a small stone desk supported by a shaft with moulded cap". The font has a wider round base made of several stone blocks, amd is raised on a modern plinth with kneeling stone. [NB: In the Oxford guide mentioned above, the font stands directly on the ground, without a plinth; the same source shows an iron eyelet on the basin rim but no cover on it, whereas Bond's photograph of ca. 1908 shows the same flat round cover that is on the font now [2010]; it has metal decoration and a ring handle]. Buck (1951) notes: "the stone book-rest is attached to the pillar alongside which the font has been placed", of which Buck mentions Wraxall (Somerset), Sonning (Berkshire), Beckley (Oxfordshire) and Gillingham (Kent). The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 5, 1957) notes: "Reynold of St. Valery gave Beckley church to the Templars at Cowley in about 1146, at the time of the second Crusade, for the salvation of the souls of himself and his relatives and all those who desired to strive with him to reach Jerusalem" and reports the ca. 1200 font on the west side of the pillar between the north aisle and the vestry, and informs that it was "lined with lead in 1844". There is no mention of the font in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974).